Love Bites

LOVE BITES Chapter 19 : The Wage Of Fear

A/N: Oh me gerd we're up to CHAPTER 20 !! Getting so old!

Time to get inside Alsa's head for a bit...

Chapter 19 : The Wage Of Fear

Alastair's POV

Upon the change in her breathing, I knew she had woken even before her eyelids fluttered open.

Nikki lifted herself up, blonde hair trailing across the purple pillow after her. It was messier than normal. She'd always managed her hair; kept it neat and perfect. With these past days however, I suppose it was fair to say she didn't have the effort nor energy to try.

But it didn't matter. Messy hair or not she was still the most beautiful being to ever exist in this world.

And soon, she will be a vampire.

Initially, the news of her transition crumbled whatever walls of sanctuary we all had worked so hard to build for her. For the first time I felt real fear for her safety. But then, on the other hand, there was this spring of joy that surged through me, entwining with the fear and creating some form of excitement.

At long last she would be where she belongs, next to me.

Of course that joy was short lived. Once the weight of the situation resettled on my shoulders I was reminded that for the next few weeks, her last moments of being human will undoubtedly be torture.

I was hoping Chàntelle could have been as more use to us. All he came up with was a mixture, currently standing on her bedside table, to slow down what would eventually grace the Earth.

Another Creature of Darkness.

And an extremely powerful one at that.

The last known Imperial.

I would protect her, by whatever means necessary. The promise I made to the Lord and Lady still held true.

The quilts fell down Nikki's stomach, pooling around her waist. She was wearing a T-shirt sizes too large for her and baggy shorts. I assumed the black shirt was Lord Emrik's. She'd worn it numerous times before, only ever as pajamas.

Rubbing her eyes, she looked around her room sleepily. It was also fair to say she'd be extremely tired the next few weeks. The act of transitioning into an immortal being took considerable amounts of energy. That explained her fainting spells recently.

The guilt rode me. Why hadn't I realised sooner? Why hadn't I realised that she was going through this? I wasn't paying close enjoy attention. No. It was because she still smelt mostly human. Yes. Even now... it was most definitely out of the ordinary. It was legal to turn as many humans you wanted into vampires, put in place by the Vampire Council, and more often than not, a full transition from human to vampire was completed within a few hours. At most, a days length. But Nikki... this has been ongoing, for weeks now, and her scent didn't exactly equip to that of an ordinary transition. Why hadn't she said anything earlier? When she first noticed the changes?

I watched her silently as I leant against the wall closest to the window, a book in hand. For the last couple of hours my attention had been rapt by the smooth artist words of our race and the shedding of leaves from the trees below. Occasionally they had drifted to her sleeping form, listening to the rhythm of her breathing, as I planned what to do next. The hours she'd been asleep weren't always peaceful. She would kick and turn her head in restlessness before settling down again only for it to be repeated.